TOPIC: Advice on software: content analysis of videos

Marta Rabikowska asked on IVSA mailinglist what methods of analysis we applied to a combination of cognitive and non-verbal (bodily) utterances when they are videoed, particularly to participatory projects in which participants use cameras and produce their own data.

In my opinion collective analysis of video data could be a useful methodology in participatory projects, and its rationale is similar to photo elicitation.

I hope this can help:
I recorded and analysed visual data made by the participants with softwareTransana. I published on
Parmeggiani P., (2011) Visual Sociology in the Classroom: Fostering Interaction Awareness Using Video, in Esposito Anna, Esposito Antonietta M., Martone Raffaele, Müller Vincent C., Scarpetta Gaetano (eds), Toward Autonomous, Adaptive, and Context-Aware Multimodal Interfaces: Theoretical and Practical Issues, Springer, p 117 – 135

Abstract
This paper is about the methodological problem of group video – analysis with Visual Sociology.
We will discuss this issue presenting an empirical research about the interactions between teacher and students in a grade tree of a secondary school. Our purpose has been to analyze and foster the behaviors, according to the perceived problems and wishes of teacher and adolescents.
The methodologies, which shaped our data collection and analysis, are the Action Research, the Conversation Analysis of institutional talk within a class, the Stimulated Recall, and the Visual Sociology with CAQDAS.
We taped some lessons; through the replay of their daily activity we involved them (students and teacher separately) in an auto-observation and video analysis process with software Transana, highlighting those behaviors which where outstanding for them, eliciting their subjective meanings, recognizing the reciprocal messages of attention or carelessness, and disclosing some events of classroom “front-stage and backstage”.
Finally we organized a focus group about the respective interpretative video analysis of the lesson (group analysis), allowing a reciprocal meta-communication. This gave the start for a social exchange of representations of each other's actions, the collaborative construction and negotiation of meanings, involved opinions, and expectations.
We believe this method of group video – analysis can become integral part of an interaction change process, as it improves the awareness of the events. It forces a re-examination of fixed practices, helping to redefine rigid patterns of interaction and didactic routine.

Marta wrote: I am trying to find an effective method of analysing video material, but such which is planned in advance for a holistic view of the scenario recorded, where linguistic, thematic-conceptual, non-verbal, and psycho-social is analysed in relation to each other.

Abstract
The aim of this research was to test Transana, a Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis
Software (CAQDAS), for teaching different research methods. We used semiotics, ethnographic
analysis, and visual sociology to evaluate a TV commercial with a class of media studies students.
We developed a specific combination of video-recording, editing tools and software to record,
analyse and present audiovisual data using Transana, which was used to study the video and interviews.
The use of this software helped with transcribing, coding, and retrieving visual and audio
data, and generally facilitated the collective analysis of the subject and benefited the accuracy of
investigation. We believe that CAQDAS could be used for instructional purposes and that its visual
interface could improve the teaching process for semiotics and visual sociology for students in
media studies; however, it requires the availability of proper video-recorded data.

Parmeggiani P. ,Teaching different research methods through the use of video analysis software for
media students: A case study. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIPLE RESEARCH APPROACHES Volume 2, Issue 1, June 2008